Terms : Hide Images
| 9226748349 | Allegory | A story with a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. | 0 | |
| 9226751929 | Allusion | An expression that calls to mind something else without explicitly stating it. | 1 | |
| 9226767630 | Archetype | A very typical example of a type of person or thing. | 2 | |
| 9226769778 | Aside | When a character says something that only the audience hears. | 3 | |
| 9226773306 | Bildungsroman | A book that concentrates on the entire development of a character from youth to adulthood. | 4 | |
| 9226775668 | Cacophony | The use of harsh sounds (words with lots of consonants). | 5 | |
| 9226777353 | Catharsis | A state of emotional or spiritual renewal. | 6 | |
| 9226789075 | Flat Character | A 2-d character, or character that is lacking in multiple traits and complexity | 7 | |
| 9226794614 | Round Character | A 3-d character, a character that has many different traits and lots of development. | 8 | |
| 9226797847 | Static Character | A character who does not develop and undergoes very little change. | 9 | |
| 9226800716 | Dynamic Character | A character who undergoes an important change | 10 | |
| 9226804612 | Protagonist | The main character of a story | 11 | |
| 9226806572 | Antagonist | The character who opposes the protagonist and is instrumental to their development. | 12 | |
| 9226810351 | Conflict | A struggle between opposing forces. | 13 | |
| 9226814692 | Connotation | A hidden cultural or emotional meaning associated with a word/phrase. | 14 | |
| 9226816921 | Dennotation | The literal definition/meaning of the word/phrase. | 15 | |
| 9226821481 | Denouement/Resolution | The point after the climax when lose ends are tied up and the story is given an ending. | 16 | |
| 9226824496 | Deus ex machina | When an implausible concept or character is brought into the story to resolve conflict and bring about a happy ending. (ex. flying eagles save gandalf) | 17 | |
| 9226846096 | Diction | The author's word choice. | 18 | |
| 9226848850 | Epigraph | A short quote at the beginning of a text to suggest the theme of what's to come. | 19 | |
| 9226858273 | Euphony | Sounds that are pleasant to listen to. | 20 | |
| 9226870815 | Exposition | Important information about plot, character background or setting | 21 | |
| 9226875476 | Foil | A character that has characteristics that oppose another character, usually the protagonist. | 22 | |
| 9226879675 | Foreshadowing | Clues about events that happen later in the story. | 23 | |
| 9226883418 | Hamartia | A fatal flaw in a character that leads to their downfall (Ex. Percy Jackson falls into tartarus). | 24 | |
| 9226891391 | Hubris | When a character has too much pride or self-confidence, and it becomes a flaw (Ex. Okonkwo in TFA, or Annabeth) | 25 | |
| 9226898378 | Imagery | Descriptive language relating to the five senses (what you can see, feel, hear, smell, and taste). | 26 | |
| 9226900748 | In media res | A narrative that begins in the middle of action in order to hook the reader. | 27 | |
| 9226904283 | Invective | Using insulting language to express intense dislike (Ex. Westly is invective to the prince in Princess Bride). | 28 | |
| 9226916057 | Literary Quibble/Equivocation | The use of ambiguous/broad language to conceal the truth and prove one's point (Ex. Alice in Wonderland) | 29 | |
| 9226926079 | Malapropism | The accidental replacing of worlds with words of a similar sound to create nonsensical sentences (Ex. He is the very Pineapple of politeness instead of pinacle of politeness). | 30 | |
| 9226935307 | Monologue | A speech a character gives that explains their thoughts to another character or the audience. | 31 | |
| 9226940518 | Motif | A recurring image or idea in a literary work that contributes to the development of the theme. | 32 | |
| 9226959316 | Pathetic Fallacy | Giving things in nature human qualities and emotions (rather than personification that gives human qualities to any inanimate object). | 33 | |
| 9226967973 | Soliloquy | A speech a character makes to themself, often helps express important plot information about a character's feelings (a monologue is generally a speech given to another character or to the audience). | 34 | |
| 9226985478 | Stream of Consciousness | The individual thought processes of a character, often used as a method of narration (Ex. The begining of Copper Sun). | 35 | |
| 9226992078 | Syntax | The structure of a sentence created by the arrangement of words | 36 | |
| 9226996752 | Theme | The main idea or underlying meaning of a work (Subject is the topic, but theme is the meaning, or the message). | 37 | |
| 9228062032 | Tone | The attitude of the author towards the subject or audience. The author's attitude towards the theme. | 38 | |
| 9228064618 | Lyric | A collection of verses and choruses that creates a song or short poem (elegy and ode are types of lyrics). | 39 | |
| 9228071115 | Narrative poetry | A form of poetry that tells a story, often using a narrator and characters. | 40 | |
| 9228073352 | Refrain | A recurring phrase or verse, especially at the first and last verse of a stanza (verse means line). | 41 | |
| 9228076881 | Blank verse | A line of poetry (verse) that does not rhyme, often is also a pentameter (five stressed/unstressed beats). | 42 | |
| 9228090462 | Caesura | Pause in the middle of a verse caused by punctuation or with a parallel symbol: ||. | 43 | |
| 9228095590 | Conceit | A comparison between two vastly different objects, different from a metaphor in the sense that this comparison is unusual (instead of "slow as a snail", a conceit is "love is an oil change"). | 44 | |
| 9228103143 | Elegy | A poem or song in honor of someone who has passed away. | 45 | |
| 9228105546 | End-stopped | A natural pause at the end of a verse, often indicated by punctuation. | 46 | |
| 9228108463 | Enjambment | When a verse has no punctuation, and runs into another | 47 | |
| 9228111204 | Epic | A long narrative poem usually depicting the heroics of a person (Ex. The Illiad. A ballad is similar to this, but is shorter and is sung not narrated). | 48 | |
| 9228124893 | Free verse | A poem with no set pattern or rhyming scheme. | 49 | |
| 9228127299 | Heroic couplet | Two successive rhyming verses in a poem with a iambic pentameter (stressed/unstressed rhythm scheme). | 50 | |
| 9228130286 | Ending rhyme | When the last words of two verses of a stanza rhyme | 51 | |
| 9228133958 | Feminine rhyme | When words ending in unstressed syllables rhyme (motion and notion or fortunate or importunate). | 52 | |
| 9228137617 | Internal/middle rhyme | Words within a verse and words at the end of a verse rhyme | 53 | |
| 9228142349 | Masculine rhyme | When words ending in stressed syllables rhyme (bells and hells). | 54 | |
| 9228144791 | Sight rhyme | When word endings are spelled the same, but do not actually rhyme (have and grave). | 55 | |
| 9228148032 | Slant/imperfect/half/almost rhyme | Rhyming words sound very similar but do not actually rhyme. | 56 | |
| 9228156520 | Terza rima | Tercets (stanzas with three lines) in iambic pentameter | 57 | |
| 9229275157 | Scansion | To divide a poem into feet | 58 | |
| 9233628067 | Meter | The number of feet in a verse | 59 | |
| 9233633698 | Foot | A combination of stressed and unstressed syllables | 60 | |
| 9233645421 | Sonnet | A poem with 1 stanza, 14 lines and a specific rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter rhythm scheme | 61 | |
| 9233656789 | Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet | A sonnet with ABBA ABBA CDE CDE rhyming | 62 | |
| 9233661283 | English/Shakespearean Sonnet | A sonnet with ABAB ABAB CDE CDE rhyming | 63 | |
| 9233665179 | Villanelle | A poem with 6 stanzas, 19 lines, and an ABA*5 ABAA rhyme scheme (also the first and third lines repeat throughout the stanza, Ex. Do not go gently into that good night) | 64 | |
| 9233684450 | Stanza | A grouped set of lines in a poem | 65 | |
| 9233687083 | Couplet | 2 successive rhyming lines | 66 | |
| 9233691478 | Tercet | A stanza with three lines, sometimes with a ABA rhyme and iambic pentameter (Ex. Haiku is a tercet without a rhyme and rhythm scheme) | 67 | |
| 9233718916 | Quatrain | A stanza with 4 lines | 68 | |
| 9233724999 | Sestet | A stanza with 6 lines | 69 | |
| 9233730003 | Octet | A stanza with 8 lines | 70 | |
| 9233734073 | Alliteration | Words with the same first consonant sound appearing close to each other (But a better butter makes a batter better). | 71 | |
| 9233737710 | Anaphora | The repetition of the first part of a sentence (Ex. I have a dream) | 72 | |
| 9233741730 | Antithisis | Putting two opposite ideas together to create a contrast (unlike juxtaposition, compleatly opposite ideas like Heaven and Hell) | 73 | |
| 9233749137 | Assonance | When words with the same vowel sounds are close together (men sell the wedding bells, sell and bells sound similar but do not rhyme). | 74 | |
| 9233759725 | Asyndeton | The omission of a conjunction in a sentence (Ex. The air was thick, warm, heavy, sluggish. The and is emitted). | 75 | |
| 9233777016 | Consonance | When there are words with the same consonant sound close together (Ex. The Fugees, "Rap rejects my tape deck, ejects projectile Whether Jew or gentile, I rank top percentile Many styles, more powerful than gamma rays My grammar pays, like Carlos Santana plays." examples are projective, gentile, percentile and rays, pays, plays) | 76 | |
| 9233828568 | Parallelism | The use of components in a sentence that are grammatically similar, or are similar in construction (Ex. I came, I saw, I conquered) | 77 | |
| 9233869813 | Polysyndeton | When conjunctions are used more than necessary (Ex. beer, and gin, and tea, and coffee, and what not) | 78 | |
| 9233878810 | Apostrophe | When the writer/speaker speaks directly to someone who is not present, is dead, or an inanimate object. | 79 | |
| 9233908280 | Hyperbole | An exaggeration for effect | 80 | |
| 9233931736 | Euphemism | A polite, indirect statement that replaces words that might be considered harsh or impolite (Ex. kicked the bucket or passed away for died, downsizing for firing, darn and shoot for cuss words, perspiration for sweat, mentally challenged for stupid, bottom/read-end for butt, unmentionables for underwear, before I go for before I die). | 81 | |
| 9233937050 | Homeric/Epic Simile | Detailed simile that spans many lines | 82 | |
| 9233941535 | Verbal Irony | When a person says one thing and means another | 83 | |
| 9233946127 | Situational Irony | Actions have an opposite effect than what was intended (Harry must kill Lord Voldemort, but to do so he must be killed by Lord Voldemort) | 84 | |
| 9233955706 | Dramatic Irony | When the audience knows more than the characters | 85 | |
| 9233965292 | Cosmic Irony | The idea that the universe is either indifferent to man's fate or is toying with them (Ex. Dirk Gently or Hitchhikers Guide) | 86 | |
| 9234006523 | Romantic Irony | When an author has an attitude of dettached skepticism towards their work (might result in an author self-reflecting/criticizing within their work) | 87 | |
| 9234031082 | Structural Irony | An alternate meaning within a work, often caused by a unreliable/naive narrator | 88 | |
| 9234036203 | Extended Metaphor | A comparison between two different things spanning several lines or sentences | 89 | |
| 9234043214 | Mixed Metaphor | When several metaphors are used at once, creating an odd effect (Ex. the failure left a sour taste in my eye, or "That's awfully thin gruel for the right wing to hang their hats on.") | 90 | |
| 9234061691 | Onomatopoeia | A word that imitates a soud | 91 | |
| 9234079232 | Oxymoron | Contrasting ideas that form an effect (cruel kindness, living death, "in order to lead, you must walk behind"). | 92 | |
| 9234084793 | Paradox | A statement that is a contradiction, but contains truth (Ex. Nobody goes to the restaurant because it's too crowded) | 93 | |
| 9234089041 | Personification | Giving something that is not human human-like qualities | 94 | |
| 9234099507 | Pun | A play on words creating more than one meaning (Ex. I was struggling to figure out how lightning works then it struck me) | 95 | |
| 9234113702 | Simile | A comparison between two ideas using like or as (or other comparison words) | 96 | |
| 9234121391 | Symbol | When an object, person or idea has another meaning | 97 | |
| 9234128575 | Synesthesia | Description that appeals to more than one sense (Ex. In "Dying" by Dickison she describes the sound buzz as blue) | 98 | |
| 9234133042 | Synecdoche | When a part is used to represent a whole or vise-versa (Ex. All hands on deck) | 99 | |
| 9234139874 | Understatement | When a situation is intentionally made to seem less important than it is (Ex. Sethe concentrates on her stolen milk rather than her own rape) | 100 |
